In Honor of Women’s History Month, we’re shining a spotlight on the incredible contributions of women in Worcester’s arts and culture scene. This week, we’re thrilled to highlight three inspiring leaders—Juliet Feibel, Tuyet Tran, and Jen Gaskin—who are making a lasting impact with their innovation, dedication, and compassion. These trailblazers exemplify resilience and determination, shaping our creative community in powerful ways.
Jen Gaskin has brought Caribbean heritage to Worcester through the Worcester Caribbean American Carnival for over ten years. WCACA promotes the broader understanding and deeper appreciation of the Caribbean and Black American experience.
Juliet Feibel has led ArtsWorcester since 2011 and has had significant impact in Worcester’s art culture, educating, inspiring, and impacting artists of all kinds. Her leadership shapes the museums long term growth and cultural advancement.
Tuyet Tran is the Executive Director of the Southeast Asian Coalition where they strive to address cultural and linguistic services for Southeast Asian Immigrants in Central Massachusetts, bridging the gap between the Southeast Asian community and the Greater Worcester community.
Join us as we celebrate their achievements and recognize the importance of uplifting and empowering women every day!
Jennifer Gaskin
Founder/President/ Worcester Caribbean American Carnival Association
What role have the arts played in your life, both personally and professionally?
I didn’t realize it until recently, but the arts have been a constant force in my life. From learning African dance as a child to writing as soon as I knew how to spell, and now leading the WCACA, creative expression has always been there—an anchor, an outlet, a way to process and release my traumas. The arts connect me to my culture, my spirituality, and ultimately, to myself.
How have other women in the arts inspired you?
Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison were powerful inspirations for me as a writer. Through their words, they shared their journeys, taught lessons, and created space for voices like mine. I also deeply admired Cicely Tyson—she was stunning, unapologetic, and the first representation I had of a famous and glamorous darker-skinned Black woman. Seeing her made me feel seen.
How do you incorporate your identity as a woman into your creative work and leadership?
As a Black woman, my identity is inseparable from my artistic expression. My Caribbean heritage deeply influences my creativity, connecting me to my ancestors and shaping my journey. I incorporate my femininity into my art by celebrating Black womanhood, exploring cultural narratives, utilizing traditional techniques, and addressing social issues. Through these approaches, I strive to create art that reflects my personal experiences and resonates with the broader narratives of Black femininity and cultural heritage.
In your opinion, what are some of the challenges women face in the arts, and how have you navigated them?
As a Black woman in the arts, I confront the same challenges that women face across society: being overlooked, underestimated, and treated as unequal. Despite women comprising 51% of visual artists today, they remain underrepresented in major art institutions. For instance, a 2022 report revealed that women accounted for only 33.6% of exhibiting artists in state galleries and 30.5% in major museums. Additionally, women artists earn only one-third of what their male counterparts make. These disparities are compounded for women of color, who face additional layers of discrimination. In response, I persistently show up, using my voice and actions to challenge these inequities and carve out space for myself and others in the artistic community.
What advice would you give to empower women, especially those from underrepresented groups?
To all women, especially those from traditionally undervalued communities: Keep showing up. Keep raising your voice. You belong, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Art is your story, and there’s no right or wrong way to express it.
Juliet Feibel
Executive Director ArtsWorcester
What role have the arts played in your life, both personally and professionally?
I pursued theatre and dance quite seriously from late elementary school through high school, and then shifted to literary criticism and art history, from museum internships all the way to a PhD. So growing up, my extracurricular activities were arts-based and much of my social life was also arts-based (hello, show choir!).
My parents were very active volunteers for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and they took my sister and me with them everywhere. They weren’t thinking of exposing us to career paths–they were just running errands with kids in tow–but this meant I grew up seeing the backstage of arts organizations, the literal backstage, and the offices where finance staff and fundraisers and graphic designers work. That turned out to be enormously important.
How have other women in the arts inspired you?
“Competent” doesn’t sound like a term of high praise or a very inspirational ideal, but it is for me. People who show up on time, who get things done, who come to a project knowing what is necessary and what is nonsense, who deliver what they promise, who don’t suffer fools but still manage them kindly–they catalyze me, and make me want to deliver even better work. I salute the stage managers of the arts world, whatever the discipline.
How do you incorporate your identity as a woman into your creative work and leadership?
Good leadership is good leadership, regardless of gender. But my experience as a mother of two working an exhilarating but demanding job–with many evening and weekend hours–means that I am intent on flexibility in the workspace, and respect for a healthy work-life balance. For the ArtsWorcester team, this might mean the ability to rearrange hours or work from home to help with kids, aging parents, or other household demands. For artists, it might mean balancing a studio art practice with their work responsibilities. I don’t worry about how work gets done, as long as it’s done well and on time. I don’t think of that sort of leadership as particularly feminine, but it was a female experience that brought me to it.
In your opinion, what are some of the challenges women face in the arts, and how have you navigated them?
The arts are one of the few industries in which women are not at a great significant historic disadvantage. (That said, the leadership of major museums and the largest performing arts companies remain predominantly in the hands of men; sisters, we have farther to go!).
I think the challenge is rather that the arts themselves, particularly smaller or community-based efforts, are perceived as “women’s work”–not as the economic and social powerhouses that they are. Hard numbers tell us how crucial the arts are to our economy, at the local, state, and national level. Here in Massachusetts alone, the arts and culture sector is a $28.6 billion dollar industry, with some 133,000 jobs. That’s larger than both construction and transportation. We need to walk and talk that way.
What advice would you give to empower women, especially those from underrepresented groups?
Trust your gut. If your intuition doesn’t feel good about something, give yourself the time to figure out why.
Perhaps my all-time favorite example: Sue Von, ArtsWorcester’s administrator, once kept ArtsWorcester from taking on a bad project, one the rest of us were excited about, because something about it just didn’t feel right to her. She went back, looked at some data, figured out the problem, spoke up about what she found, and saved us from what could have been an exhausting disaster.
If you are hearing something in conversation or in a plan you don’t like, but you can’t figure out why or what to say, be non-committal. Defer your response. Determining a better solution or outcome, regardless of the situation, takes careful consideration, and time. But you’ve got to listen to your intuition first.
Tuyet Tran
Executive Director/ Southeast Asian Coalition of Central MA
What role have the arts played in your life, both personally and professionally?
I believe everyone is an artist. We all have a desire to create. Since childhood, art has been my way of making sense of the world. I had a traumatic childhood that caused a lot of inner turmoil, and writing became my refuge. I created stories of heroes like Wonder Woman—characters who made me feel powerful when I often felt powerless.
Photography also became a way for me to create, to capture beauty in the way people posed. But film was expensive, and I couldn’t take as many pictures as I wanted. That limitation never stopped me from seeing the world through an artistic lens. Now of course, it’s different with technology, it’s easier to create but harder to keep your art unique and authentic.
Writing remained my greatest comfort. I wrote poetry, stories about my life, conversations I had, and things my sisters said—anything that felt real and meaningful to me. Storytelling has always been at the heart of my creativity. Whether through writing reflection, poetry, lyrics in a way that makes people laugh, art is more than just something I do—it’s who I am.
How have other women in the arts inspired you?
Women in the arts who create despite obstacles inspire me the most. Many of them are not famous. They are in our communities. They are the ones who have found ways to express their truth—whether or not they were formally trained, whether or not they had approval from the world—remind me that art is about passion and authenticity, not just credentials. Seeing women share their stories, their struggles, and their resilience has pushed me to keep creating, even when I doubted myself.
I admire women who break barriers, who don’t conform, who bring raw emotion into their work. I see their courage, and it encourages me to find my own voice.
How do you incorporate your identity as a woman into your creative work and leadership?
Being a woman influences everything about my creative work. My writing reflects themes of resilience, power, struggle, and transformation. My poetry is a mix of darkness and light—just like life. I use humor to heal because humor has saved me more times than I can count.
As a leader, I challenge the idea that formal training or belonging to an art club is necessary to be taken seriously. I create because it’s a part of who I am, and I encourage others—especially women—to do the same. I want to foster spaces where women don’t have to ask for permission to create or be heard.
In your opinion, what are some of the challenges women face in the arts, and how have you navigated them?
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced as a woman in the arts is confidence. In my culture, women are not seen through the same lens as men. Even today, women often have to fight harder to be taken seriously. If you don’t have traditional training or a certain level of recognition, it can feel like your work is dismissed.
But I’ve learned that art doesn’t need permission. I create because I must as a form of my own need to evolve and find meaning. I’ve stopped waiting for validation from institutions or others. Instead, I focus on expressing myself in a way that is real and meaningful. I navigate these challenges by embracing my truth, surrounding myself with people who uplift me, and trusting that my voice matters.
I have also used what influence I have to find spaces for community artists to bring their art forward. An example of this includes helping to make the first Asian Festival come to life in 2004. Then, it was the Southeast Asian Festival. A few hundred people showed up. Now it’s a couple of thousands.
What advice would you give to empower women, especially those from underrepresented groups?
Your art is valid, no matter where you come from, no matter how you learned to create. You don’t need permission, training, or approval to express yourself. If you have something to say, say it. If you have something to create, create it.
Confidence doesn’t always come easily, but you have to own your space in the world. Find people who support you, but don’t wait for others to believe in you before you believe in yourself. Your voice, your perspective, your story—these are your powers. And no one else can tell them the way you can.
